The Bridge
by Schuyler Lola
Summary: Lit. Conversation at the bridge. Now a twoshot.
1. Beginnings

**Disclaimer: **Sadly, I don not own Gilmore Girls. I know. Disappointment abounds. You all want me to own it, right?

**A/N: **This is in response to a challenge I gave on Lorelai90's board. (Now I'll do some shameless advertising. Go there, join! We love new people!) I'm horrible. I do my own challenges. But whatever. That's half the fun of creating them!

This one-shot/challenge is based off the quote "Sometimes, things just are." (Anonymous)

It's lit. Kind of fluffy.

The Bridge

Rory sat, staring at her feet, feeling the tears freeze on her cheeks. The dead of winter wasn't being forgiving to her mental state, or her physical state. She was miserable. That was why she sat in the shadow of the gazebo, hoping no one would find her there, and worse, tell Lorelai where she was, because one of the worst things would be for her to go home to have her mother try to comfort her with a secret I-told-you-so deep behind her concern for Rory.

They were fighting more and more frequently. By they, Rory meant her and Jess. Louder shouting matches, longer silences and somehow, an even more serious relationship, with all of the things that she wanted. It was the fights – though; they were really off-putting. They fought about everything now – from what food they'd order to what movie they'd watch to what song was better! It was crazy, and Rory didn't know how to fix what was going on with them. It was just too much.

She wove her fingers together, feeling the dry skin, chapped by the brutal weather, crack a bit. She winced, knowing they would be tender for a few days. Rory let her thoughts flow, trying to keep up with them. _What am I going to do? We need to talk. Where is he? And why can't we stop fighting?_

Rory slowly peeled her self off the bench, swiped her sleeve over her eyes and started to Luke's. It was the one-stop place to find everyone, or at least find someone who knew someone else who would know where the person in question was. She took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

The aroma of food, the warmth of the diner itself, and the chatter of the townspeople greeted her at the threshold of Luke's. Lorelai was in there, getting her daily intake of burgers and coffee. "Rory, babe," she called, "come over here."

Rory obligingly sat down at the table with her mother. "Luuuuukkke! Coffee for Rory!" Lorelai called out to him. He gave her a customary scowl, and grabbed the coffee pot. Lorelai turned to Rory. "Well, you look great. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she replied distractedly. "Luke, have you seen Jess?"

"Not since four o'clock," he replied, pouring a cup.

Miss Patty turned around. "What, honey, you lose him? Boy like that, that's a dangerous business." She chuckled a bit then became serious. "I saw him go into the bookstore about two hours ago."

"Hey, sugar, I saw him at Gypsy's about his car an hour ago," Babette informed her.

Soon, enough, the diner was filled with people calling put where they had seen Jess last. Luke looked annoyed, while Lorelai looked pained on Rory's behalf. Rory herself flushed a bright red. "Thanks, everyone," she said loudly over the din. "I'm going to go find him myself."

"Good luck, sugar," Babette yelled through the doorway.

She walked through the darkened square looking at all of the shops. It was past eight o'clock, and in Stars Hollow, that was practically midnight. Many things were closed, which was why everyone had decided to hang out in the diner until the nine-thirty town meeting. Rory was surprised Taylor was even having a town meeting so late. It was a little strange.

The moonlight rippled on the ice as she made her way down to the bridge. It was almost as smooth as glass, except for a few cracks from hard games of hockey on the river. A dark figure was sitting there, and she had a feeling she knew who it was, just there, so quietly and still. "Jess?" she stage-whispered. "Jess? Is that you?"

He turned around and gave her a blank stare. "What are you doing down here, Rory?" he asked, with kindness. "Aren't you going to the town meeting?"

She shook her head vehemently. "I wanted to talk to you," she explained.

"I have nothing to say right now."

"That's obvious!" She balled up her hands into fists, again feeling the sting of her cracked skin pulling. "Why won't you talk, Jess? You say you're in this, you say you're committed, but I can't know that if you don't tell me what you're thinking occasionally!"

"I know, I'm sorry." He turned back to stare at the ice. "I just can't, you know, say what I'm thinking and feeling before I process it, Rory. I'm not you. I can't just say it, immediately."

"I know you're not me." She sat beside him, huddling on the wood. "But why won't you tell me anything?"

"I tell you stuff."

"Yeah, stuff. What you read last week doesn't count. You don't tell me the important stuff, Jess."

"What do you want to know, Rory?"

She looked taken aback, but then smiled. "I want to know where you go when no one can find you. I want to know what you're thinking when you look at me with a funny half-smile on your face. I want to know why you come here."

Jess shook his head and laughed. Then he was silent for so long that Rory began to be worried. "Jess?" she prodded, holding her breath.

"I come here because it's quiet. It gets me away from this half-mile, two-bit, hick town so I can think." He actually looked embarrassed then. "And it reminds me of you."

"How? I hate nature." She looked around, and smiled. "But it nice here, isn't it?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, it is." He was silent again, and then said, "I don't know why I always think of you here. It's just they way it is."

"That's sweet," she mumbled, leaning up against him.

Together, they watched the light continue to dance on the ice.


	2. Endings

**Disclaimer: **Nothing has changed from the last time I wrote. Sigh…I wish I owned Gilmore Girls…I bet it's not rainy/snowy/cold in LA.

**A/N: **I decided to make this a two-shot, because **The REAL Mrs. Milo Ventimiglia **asked so kindly. I don't really have any ideas for a chapter story, but I decided I would add this, just because. It's still a little fluffy. Kind of. And they're really more friend-ish here, than anything else.

This is set at the end of season 7.

Chapter 2: Endings

Graduation day. People got excited, talking about what they were going to do, where they were going, who they were going to be. Rory had only misty ideas. All summer, she was going to be going to interviews and eating mac 'n' cheese in her mother's kitchen. Oh, yes. The life of an Eli with an undergrad degree.

She was scared. High school graduation hadn't been this nerve-wracking, because she knew what she was going to do. Now she was an adult, and couldn't hide behind that façade of general kid-cheeriness. Her future, for the first time, felt hazy and out of reach.

Rory would've started crying over all of the feelings overwhelming her – sadness at leaving Yale, being scared about being in the "real world", upset at her farce of a relationship with Logan. It was getting louder, to say the least. They couldn't seem to get it together.

However, she had to keep her eyes on the road. She was driving home to spend her last day before graduation with Lorelai, just doing some of the things they always did. Her mother was back on speaking terms with Luke, and they would probably go see him as well, even though he was coming to the graduation.

She ran through the list of people who were coming to see her graduate from Yale. Emily, Richard, Luke, Lorelai, Sookie, Jackson, Babette, Morrey, Miss Patty – she was pretty sure half the town was coming. Even Michel had grudgingly agreed to come. Logan would be there, or at least said he was, but since she had just taken off without any notice to him, he might pull what her father had done when Richard had a heart attack. Chris wasn't coming, and quite frankly, Rory thought that was probably a good idea. She didn't want too much awkwardness between any of the people going.

Rory pulled up to the familiar house, and carried the last of her boxes in the house. "Mom?" she called. "Mom? Where are you?"

"In here," Lorelai yelled back. "Kitchen!"

"What are you doing?" Rory demanded, seeing Lorelai putting icing on a cake. "is that even legal?"

"Relax, my little genius," Lorelai said. "Sookie explained it all to me. It's foolproof. I can't possibly mess up this cake. Besides, she's making the real cake. This is just the one for tonight, where we get completely trashed on sugar."

"Isn't that every night?" Rory asked, sticking a finger in the icing bowl.

Lorelai whisked it away from her. "Yes, but tonight is special! Or have you completely forgotten why we are celebrating???!!"

"I remember." Rory sat at the table, staring dubiously at the cake. "Did you actually make this cake?"

"No. Do I look like Betty Crocker to you? Sookie made it, and the icing. I just get to put it on." Lorelai placed a dollop of frosting on the cake, as if to prove her point. "Do you also not remember your entire childhood?"

"I remember the cake we tried to make entirely out of frosting," Rory replied. "That was a failure."

"I know." Lorelai dropped her knife. "But it was good, in theory."

"Theory is usually better." Rory folded her hands on the table. Lorelai stopped moving and looked at her daughter, sensing a serious tone to the conversation now. "Theory – my dream of being a journalist is theory, isn't it? What if I can't do it? What if I don't get a job?"

"Honey." Lorelai placed a hand over Rory's own. "You'll get a job. You are in demand. Didn't you have an interview with the New York Times? So many other journalism students would kill to have that opportunity. You were the editor of the Yale Daily News. Where is this coming from, Ror?"

"I don't know. Graduation has got me thinking, I guess."

"You'll do great. Okay? And if you don't, Mommy will always take care of you."

Rory half-smiled. "Thanks, Mom."

* * *

Again, she was wandering through town. Rory was on a mission to go get some doughnuts, Red Vines and chips for their biggest movie night of all time. Lorelai had realized that they were without vital supplies for the night and had had a minor meltdown. She wanted everything to be perfect. Rory had laughed, and obligingly went to go get the rest of the junk food, while Lorelai went to go talk some coffee out of Luke.

She carried the bag full of food, and passed the diner, seeing her mother talking to Luke through the window. She smiled; the rest of the town was basically counting on this to fly. Lorelai looked much happier talking with Luke than she had her entire marriage with Christopher. Rory was happy for her mother, she really was.

Somehow, she ended up back at the bridge, wanting to leave Lorelai her moments with Luke. Tonight, the water wasn't frozen, but glistening, slightly wavy because of the spring breeze floating around. She dropped the bag of food, hoping she didn't squish the doughnuts, and picked up some rocks. She tried to skip them along the water. None of them did. Just a huge plop into the water, splashing and ruining the tranquility of the river was all she got.

"You're doing that wrong," a voice said calmly.

She whirled around, looking for the voice. "Jess?" Rory demanded. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see the town." He shrugged and walked down the slope towards her.

"No, really. You hate Stars Hollow. Why are you here?"

"I just dropped by, Rory. I came to see Luke. Liz, my sister." He got even closer to her. "And I hear you're graduating tomorrow."

"That's true."

"You don't sound too excited."

"I guess I'm not."

He nodded. "I get it."

"Do you?" she asked, feeling braver.

"Yeah, I do." He coughed. "Are you scared?"

"Yeah." She inhaled sharply. "Really scared."

"C'mere." He reached out and hugged her. "You'll do great."

Somehow, the words meant just that much more coming from him.


End file.
